An opportunity to fly from Buenos Aires to Iguazu as a part of a NCL post cruise tour was too good to pass up! It was a bit expensive ($790 usd) but getting back to that area and the logistics to get there was probably not going to happen. Based upon my previous such off the ship NCL tours I expected it to be very good and it certainly was! Why Iguaza Falls? It is considered one of the top 7 or top 10 waterfalls in the world depending on which survey you read and it is certainly one of the widest in the world. It is really a combination of over 275 waterfalls depending on the time of the year and the water flow of the Iguazu River. One of its most famous visitors was Eleanor Roosevelt and she referenced Niagara Falls by saying “Poor Niagara”. And after my visiting both of them, I can understand her comment. Located on the border of Argentina and Brazil it affords different views from each side as a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. But the best views and falls are from the Argentinian side that I had the pleasure of visiting. The paths that are called superior and inferior depending on the upper or lower views, it is certainly an amazing site.
Early wake up debarkation was required to catch our chartered airplane with American Jet ERJ145 for the 2+ hours flight to Iguazu. We leave from the city regional airport and board the plane with 3 seats across and land in the morning at Iguazu airport where we are met with a chartered bus to take us the 20 minutes to the Iguazu Falls National Park. My first impressions is that this is a really organized, clean and well setup place. Indeed it was with nice wide concrete paths and the rest areas near the falls provide a safe steel no slip surface affording us lots of views of several of the falls including at the top of several. Pictures can not do it justice, so I included a few videos here in my blog.
We walk along the entrance path to the train station that will take us on the Rainforest Ecological Train to the top of the Devil’s Throat and the entrance to the upper and lower level paths. Our guide takes us to the upper path first and we walk slowly about 1.5 mile loop and we quickly realize it is going to be a hot and humid day at 97F and 70% humidity!
We did have a nice lunch break in the main air conditioned buffet restaurant where everyone could recuperate from the heat and unfortunately many did not and had to forego the afternoon lower path walk. The lower path is actually a big longer at 1.8 miles and did have several staircases to deal with, but once again the views were spectacular!
The last part was either a long staircase or slope to get back to the main restaurant area and the guide allowed some of us to take a shuttle car to go back up. Thank God!
Another break to cool off and we head back to the airport with our bus to catch the flight back to Buenos Aires. Unfortunately, due to thunderstorms in and around Buenos Aires, we had a 3 hour flight departure delay. We get back much later then expected and with the process of dropping off passengers at various hotels, I did not get to my hotel by the airport until 130am. Exhausted but satisfied and as always happy to have done this fantastic side tour!
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